How to Identify Lady Bugs

There are several kinds of lady bugs with different appearances.

Lady bugs are technically known as lady birds. There are several different species of lady bugs, but their basic scientific name is Coccinella septempunctata. Lady bugs can live in colonies or live solo depending on the species. They eat a wide variety of vegetation and smaller insects such as aphids. Some species are known to be cannibalistic and will even eat their own young when prey is scarce. They are egg layers and each egg goes through eight stages before reaching adulthood, four of which happen before they pupate.

Things You'll Need

• Glass jar

Instructions

1. Catch as many small oval lady bugs as possible. There are several patterns that the lady bug can have.

2. Find the lady bugs with the bright red shell with black dots. This is one of the most common types of lady bugs. It is known as the hippodamia lady bug.

3. Find the lady bugs with the red-orange shell and seven black dots. This is known as the seven-spotted lady bug.

4. Observe the lady bugs with a red-orange shell and black dots. This is another commonly found lady bug known as the multicolored Asian lady bug.

5. Observe the lady bugs with the bright red shells with large black dots. These kinds of lady bugs are known as the Vedalia lady bugs.

6. Find the lady bugs with the black shells. There are two varieties of these kinds of lady bugs. One has two bright orange spots. The orange spotted lady bugs are known as the chilocorus kuwanae lady bugs. The other type has large red spots and are known as chilocorus renipustulatus ladybugs.

Tips & Warnings

• There are several more types of lady bugs out there, but these are the most common types seen around North America.

References

• Economy Exterminators: How to Identify Lady Bugs
• University of Florida: Ladybugs: Insecta: Coleoptera: Coccinellidae